Bandoleer or cartridge-belt.



Patented Sept. 30, I902.

J. HYLABIJ. BANDOLEERDBDABTBIDGE BELT.

(Applicatioh'flled Oct. 29, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2,

( No Model.)

ivy

' wzwea I %A9 Q /J Jgemz NITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HYLARD, OF ST. KILDA, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, ASSIGNOR TO FRED- ERICGODFREY HUGHES, OF MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.

BANDOLEER OR CARTRIDGE-BELT.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent N0. 710,324, dated September30, 1902.

Application filed October 29, 1900. Serial No. 34,823- (No model.)

T at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN HYLARD, gentleman, asubject of the Queen ofGreat Britain, residing at No. 2Q Acland street, St. Kilda,

5 in the State of Victoria, Australia, have invented an ImprovedBandoleer or Cartridge- Belt for Carrying Ammunition for Magazine-Rifies and other Small-Arms, of which the following is a specification.V

This invention has been devised in order to facilitate the loading ofmagazine-rifles and other small-arms by providing a bandoleer orcartridge-belt which will carry the cartridges in a convenient mannerand enable 1 5 he required numbersay five, forinstance to be fed directfrom said bandoleer into the magazine instead of singly or from clips orcarriers taken from the pouch and held in the hand, both of whichmethods obviously oocupy considerable time, apartfrom the extra cost ofthe independent clips, which are usually thrown away or lost, and apartalso from the liability of mounted troops to drop their cartridges orpacked clips, and thereby lose ammunition.

The essential feature of this invention consists in the combination,with a belt, of a series of containers or clips secured thereto, eachadapted to hold the cartridges required to load the rifle or othersmall-arm in such a manner that the whole of said cartridges can besimultaneously pressed directly from the bandoleer into the magazine ofsaid rifle or other small-arm. If, for instance, the rifle in generaluse is a five-loader, then the said containers or clips will be of suchdimensions as to enable them to receive five cartridges. The containeror clip is of simple construction and may be fashioned out of a plate ofsheet steel or other suitable metal or material. It is bent round at itsfront and rear ends, so as to form guides or retaining-channels,in whichthe bullet and breech end of the five or other desired number ofcartridges rest. The container or clip is arranged at an inclinethat is,it is lower at its forward than at its rearward en d-in order to adaptit to the shape of the cartridges and the manner in which they lie oneon the other. The

front end of the container or clip is covered over at the top, while thelower end of the plate, which is bent over and forms the side of thefrontguide or channel, is so constructed as to form V a retaining-springof sufficient strength to prevent the bullet ends of the cartridgesfalling out of the clip, without, however, interfering with the riflemanpressing the whole of the cartridges down simultaneously into themagazine of his rifle. Similarly the rear end of the clip is alsoconstructed to retain the breech end of the cartridges within the clipunder ordinary circumstances. This. construction retains the cartridgesin position at each end, as will be readily understood fromtheaccompanyingdrawings, in which Figure 1 is a representation of asoldier in the act of loading his rifle. Fig. l is a similar viewillustrating the use of a flap to cover some of the containers or clips.Fig. 2 is a perspective view of part of a bandoleer constructedaccording to this invention, and Fig.

3 is a front elevation of same. Fig. lis a detail horizontal section.Figs. 5 and 6 are vertical transverse sections on lines A A B B, Fig. 3,while Fig. 7 is a transverse section of the bandoleer, showing a slightmodification in the construction thereof.

The same letters of reference indicate the same parts inall the figures.

The belt a of the bandoleer is made of leather or other suitablematerial and is shaped so that it will fit across the shoulders of thesoldier in theordinary manner, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Instead,however, of being made with a series of pouches to contain thecartridges to load the magazine of the rifle or instead of being madewith a number of separate loops or clips for each individual cartridgeit is provided with a number of separate containers or clips I), eachadapted to hold the requisite number of cartridges to fullyload themagazine. In the instanceillustrated in the drawings this number isfive; but it will be obvious that the same principle 5 of constructioncan be used for a greater ora lesser number, if desired.

The container or clip itself may be made of sheet metal, as indicated atI), while the ends 0 and (Z, respectively, may be constructed out too ofthe same sheet and be bent, as illustrated, so as to retain the frontand rear ends of the set of cartridges. The upper end of the front partof the container may. be closed over, as

illustrated at e, while the rear end is open at the top and is bentslightly inward, as shown at f, to prevent the breech ends of thecartridges from being jerked out of the container or clip, without,however, interfering with the cartridges being placed in the containerfrom the top. This is an important feature of the container, as itenables a soldier to refill his bandoleer from his ammunition-pouch orother supply with but little loss of time or inconvenience,and thusenables him to always keep his bandoleer fully charged and ready foruse. The lower parts of each of these endscdareconstructed so astoforminwardlyprojecting springs g, which while being sufficientlystrong to support the weight of the cartridges under ordinarycircumstances will enable the rifleman to readily press the cartridgesout of the clips into the breech or magazine of his rifle.

The lower ends of the containers or clips are made of a size and shapeadapted to fit into the breech of the rifle and havedownwardly-projecting, lugs z to guide the lower end of the containerinto the breech or magazinc, and, if preferred, the container may besecured to the belt at each end by rivets or otherwise instead of beingsecured thereto through the central part of the back or base of thecontainer, in which case said central part may be cut away, the effectbeing to reduce the weight of the container.

By supporting the cartridges at each end they will not be liable tocatch in articles of clothing, for instance, and they will be lessliable to jam while being pressed out into the breech.

In practice it has been found that with this improved bandoleer theoperation of loading can be performed very expeditiously, so that themagazine of the rifle can be refilled with but very little loss of time.In fact, in practiceit has been found that three seconds arev sufficientunder ordinary circumstances to perform this operation.

A narrow flap of material may be sewed or otherwise fastened to thetunic, so as to serve asa screen or cover for the bandoleer,said flapbeing cut away where the containers or clips come into the loadingposition, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

It will of course be obvious that the improved bandoleer above describedcan be used in connection with the loading of magazine small-arms ofnearly every description and can be adapted to different kinds ofcartridges. It dispenses with the necessity for using a separate looseclip for each group or set of cartridges, as is required with the systemof clip-loading used in connection with the well-known Mauser rifle, andthus effects a considerable saving in the cost of supplying ammunitionto troops on active service in addition to materially increasing theefficiency of such troops by enabling them to reload their rifles totheir full capacity with much less loss of time than is required whereloose clips are used.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my saidinvention and in what manner the sameis to be performed, I declare thatwhat I claim is- A belt having secured thereto throughout its length, aseries of cartridge-containers, each of said containers consisting of aplate forming a rear wall and having its upper edge extending downwardlyat an inclination and a portion of its lower edge at each end extendinginwardly and upwardly at an inclination, said upwardly and inwardlyinclined portions of the lower edge terminating in the remaining portionof the lower edge which extends at an inclination, said plate having aportion at one end bent upon itself to form a flat side wall and a flatfront wall, the edges of said front wall extending at an inclinationtoward each other, the lower portion of said front wall slitted to forma spring-clip adjacent to the lower portion of the fiat side wall, saidplate further bent upon itself at its other end to form a curvilinearside wall and a fiat front wall, means integral with the top of the saidfront wall, curvilinear side wall and said plate for closing the spaceformed at the top of the front wall, curvilinear side wall and plate,the lower portion of said last-mentioned front wall slitted to form aspring-clip adjacent to the lower portion of the curvilinear side wall,said front walls arranged a suitable distance from and disengaging eachother, substantially as herein shown and described.

JOHN HYLARD.

Witnesses:

EDWARD WATERS, EDW'ARD WATERS, Jr.

